Clapham Grand was a fabulous venue for a Tuesday evening event in which nine comedians competed to find the new LGBTQ+ Comedian of the year 2022. Almost at capacity, we settled down to a fantastic evening of laughter and amusement.
Award-winning podcast presenter James Barr was our host for the evening. Introducing us to each of the nine acts, liaising with the judges and delivering some of his comedy throughout the evening.
This year’s finalists included; Dick Denham, Ben Pollard, Lachlan Werner, Umby Winters, Alison Zrada, Dee Allum, Dane Buckley, Victoria Olsina, and Dan Tiernan. Where it was left to the audience to vote for their favourites of the night and decide who won.
London-based, Argentinian-born LGBT comedian Victoria Olsina wowed the audience to take the converted winners title. Olsina’s biography explains “Victoria is the lesbian daughter of an Argentinian loanshark who came to the UK to steal jobs and steal women”. Closely followed by two runners-up Dick Denham and Lachlan Werner.
The four guests on the judging panel comprised Zoe Lyons, Vinegar Strokes, Stephen Bailey and Sikisa. After each act, the four cast their critical eye over the comedian’s performance and each of them was given honest and positive feedback.
Comedy acts ranged from some stand-up acts to singing comedy and runner-up ventriloquist, Lachlan Werner is one to watch out for as long as Brew the Witch agrees and lets him speak.
Chris Smith started Comedy Bloomers in 2017, a year after finishing comedy school. Smith recognised that the LGBTQ+ comedy scene was severely underrepresented in both the LGBTQ+ scene and mainstream comedy and set about changing this. Recognising upcoming comedians with this fairly new award (started in 2019) is an important step forward to getting these very funny comedians firmly onto the stage with the recognition they deserve.
Overall it was an entertaining, colourful and funny evening. I would like to see Lachlan Werner in the future and watch more than a bitesize performance with Brew and perhaps a few more. For further information about the evening runners-up and Victoria Olsina and Comedy Bloomers please use the links below.
https://victoriaolsinacomedy.co.uk/
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